Seven reasons why KGP hates 2008-2009

Kgp rocks! Yeah, hell it does … but, not so much in the year 2008 -09. The passing out batch would have loved to have cherished memories of their last year at kgp, but ended up missing on what could have been an unforgettable year due to few unprecedented events, some enforced circumstances and a few decisions made from our own side. Here is looking back at 2008 -09 – few reasons kgp hates the last academic year.

1. Yucky number Eleven: If some hall had actually executed the idea of designing the main chatai with “11 PM” written on it with the two middle fingers making the “1”s, it would have at least won the KGP-most-popular-chatai award. What with the campus taking the face of a deserted ghost town, no Pappu going to Bhaski at midnight, no matkeys (read: M.Techs, pardon me for my bad spelling ) coming out of the library at 1 PM, no couples saying sweet goodbyes at 2AM, signing for entering my own hall! The no-entry to the campus post 11 PM, meant goodbye to late nights at dear GIH, TP and Sher-e-Punjab. We did learn the art of staying out till morning but only after few enthusiastic men had the glory of sitting in a DC. Not to forget the concerns of the professors: “How would someone go to the lab if they wanted to work on their project late night!”. Yes Sir, that’s the thing we are actually worried about.


2. Ye illu illu kya hai, ye illu illu? This is what the kgpians might be singing every Diwali this year onwards. As a riposte to the “Eleven PM rule” or whatever, illu got canceled/ postponed and with it has set in the disease that might kill off the sacred, most unique event of kgp. For many ‘illu’ is not a mere competition but a festival which imbues Diwali with a completely new meaning. Of course no one loves the sweat, the oil, the grime, the sleeplessness, the “jab tak ye chatai nahin ho rahi, koi nahin so raha”, the “koi 2nd yr room me mila to *****..”, the “rangoli room me koi AC lagwao” etc, but nonetheless the night outs are priceless. The juniors get the kgp funde, no OP can ever teach and seniors share like no other time. For some the bonding with the fellow hall-mates makes it worth it, but for an equal number it means staying pin drop silent under a blanket in a locked room and wondering if the seniors actually break the door, or taking late night trips to the nearby Balarampur village. Either ways illu was always fun and memorable and only left with more stories to tell. As the debate continued – “Which is better : hundreds of students covered in oil and sweat, sulking over their defeat in illu at the night of Diwali; or killing off an age old tradition, memories of which we all cherish?”, the people of kgp chose not to go with it this year. Many missed illu, many not so much. As a major chunk of illu-funda passes out with the passing out batch, the fate of the next year’s illu hangs in a balance.


3. The Great Depression: No not the one in 1930s, but the one which is here, clear and present, alive and breathing. Don’t you feel like hitting someone when they comment about the great paying jobs the IITians crack or read articles on how every IITian creates a hundred job etc. We understand that the most important thing (and most probably the only thing) that the IIT life has taught us is that no matter how much things get messed up, we will persevere and end up winners. I am sure we all would but the present situation sucks, the thrilling four year long saga has ended in an unprecedented anticlimax for many. As one wonders if the decision of those who chose to switch to a 5year dual degree course from B.Tech course in IITK was for better or for worse, keep your fingers crossed for things to come.


4. The Black Sunday: Lets not talk about it and for once not let bygones be bygones.


5. What does ‘Vice’ mean as in “YO V.P.”? Kudos to the two very deserving candidates for the post of ‘Vice’ President. That was a real close fight they gave with a margin of just 19 votes. Such a close competition can only mean that the candidates were almost equally good, but one might wonder if only the pacts and the king-makers are getting better instead of the competition itself. We hope that someday the people of kgp actually think of going to the ‘Vice’ President who they have themselves elected for the responsible post, before they break into some administrator’s bungalow (or break his head, for that matter).... Did anyone say “fraility”. (For the records “Jai Matah Di” :) and .. next time, hope we have all the options available on the election choice list).


6. Hole day: Hall day left hole in the life of poor Pappu (read: common kgpian) whose sole interest in Campus Elections was Hall-days and the major reason he waits for hall days is his annual ritual of getting all his stuff out and getting the cob webs removed by an in-huge-demand hall sweeper. For the rest, Hall-day is one more occasion to get together and bhaat (which all kgpians just looove to do and cherish every moment of it) and then you get it all in the comfort of someone’s hospitable clean room. Not to mention the once-in-a-year-time opportunity of showing your special guests (read: SNites), how clean and organized you like to keep your heavenly abode, getting a few comments here and there on the walls to show off all year while keeping a mental count of the increase in the number of special guests (again read: SNites), over the year. No hall-day means less reason to celebrate or rather 8 reasons less to celebrate and Pappu is sad and is still sitting in a cob-webbed room.


7. No ‘Zig-zag-zig-zag’ – GC getting scrapped. AAaargh No! This means no – “ Humare final year me Soc-cult GC aayi thi bhai!” and no “drams cup 3 saal se hum utha rahe hain” and no “ **** ki leli, zig-zag-zig-zag” etc. The year is totally incomplete without the year end excitement of GC. (P.S. Azad was leading in Soc cult :))

If someone thinks the year wasn’t the worst thing possible maybe that’s because their transcript never reached home.